Social network analysis of personnel selection standards: An empirical study in academic institution

Abstract

Personnel selection is the procedure of recruiting and promoting individuals. Academic recruitment is the process of recruiting an academic staff for an institution. For example, the Department of Information Systems at City University of Hong Kong has invited applications for positions at the rank of Assistant Professors or Associate Professors. Having received a peal of applications, the department finds it difficult to recruit appropriate ones. Applicant evaluation is usually based on the information from curriculum vita and interviews. Though easy ways of evaluating a candidate they are, these methods sometimes cannot provide sufficient information to compare one candidate against another. New method should be employed to supplement with the academic staff recruitment process. This study seeks to find out how to evaluate a candidate based on the analysis of an applicant’s social network. Promoting is recruiting one or more staffs internally. So the conclusion made from this study can be applied not only to external recruitment process but also internal promotion process. Considering the fact that most of current researches study personnel selection from the perspectives of human resource management and psychology (Deniz & Viswesvaran, 1996) etc., this study contributes in applying social network analysis in a personnel selection context and diversifying the methods of recruiting or promoting appropriate persons.